@CronoM
 
I could be looking too deep into it. I think spending time looking at Tumblr’s constant dissections of everything. So I apologize.
 
And..yeah..that’s an issue I’ve seen people address. While the main character, Twilight’s probably the least developed. You could say that’s intentional since she’s the protagonist learning these lessons, but still..
 
Let us hope Hasbro finally allows DHX to have more creative freedom, seriously they need to be allowed to expand more than just “OH IT’S TOYS”. Even though I often have to tell people that the show IS about toys and shouldn’t get so bitchy when something like Flurry Heart happens. Seriously, seeing an MLP reviewer you like and respect immensely accuse Hasbro of ‘creating a mary sue’ can enrage someone.
 
OH OH OH.
 
OKAY GOOD.
 
Imagine bringing national politics into the fandom, it’d be doomsday…
 
Honestly I would like to see it, as well as some flaws with Celestia considering she’s basically not just a leader, but in a sense a demi-God, since she’s immortal and the like. And NO, I don’t believe Cadence and Twilight are immortal, screw that stupid BS Logic the fandom constantly enforces in art and fan fiction that “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH TWILIGHT’S AN ALICORN THEREFORE SHE’S IMMORTAL AND EVERYONE SHE LOVES IS DEAD”.

@CrassMetalHead  
“With how divided the fanbase is with the show, bringing in politics, one of the biggest buttons on the internet would be asking for more splitting.”
 
Whoa, I’m not talking about normal politics! 0.0 I’m talking about Starlight’s view of the system regarding cutie marks and entitlement in Equestia. It wouldn’t take Starlight more then a few minutes to observe out how much Celestia ignores the other 5 heroes when compared to Twilight.
 
This would be something Celestia’s not used to since she’s never needed to justify herself. EVER. It could cause breaks in her emotional and mental armor, as it were. Having a main character that is never questioned or humanized can cause a series to stagnate, and its the reason we’ve had so many safety net plots since the beginning of S3.
 
What better time to eliminate any more potential for safety net scenarios then in the season that’s no longer being advertised as a show for little girls. Don’t you think?

@CrassMetalHead  
“you say that Twilight’s basically become a way more established character than the others. Not saying it’s a bad thing, just an observation.”
 
What? No, god no, where did you interpret that from? She is the least established character who knows the least about what she wants. Which is a sucky combination because they want to give her identity the most focus. Not her character or personality of course, Hasbro couldn’t care less about that. All they wanted to do was sell toys with Princess Twilight ‘identity’. Even Larson said that DHX wanted more freedom from Hasbro when making Season 5 and Season 6.
 
In terms of established character, emotional involvement and safety net story telling, Twilight’s no more the main character then John T. Meyers was in Hellboy 1. And as for screen time and focus, see both the above and below paragraphs
 
Being sent to observe and join the more established and involved characters?…learning about stuff that is common knowledge to the rest of the heroes but we see her reactions to them from our perspective? She’s an observational main character, but because her character isn’t flushed out (and she is disturbingly co-dependent for a supposedly main character), the Hasbro team can make her whatever suits their needs, so instead of creating 2-part stories where she grows as part of the team…
 
…Hasbro is WAY more interested in glorifying her status and pushing her relationship with her friends to the side with the exception of just stating she has friends.
 
“Then again, that could be thrown out the window since the show has expanded from Twilight to the others. That’s just me though.”
 
Its not just you. Quite a huge chunk of the fandom would rather see other characters like Sunset take center stage instead of Twilight. Or have Twilight share the spotlight at all. I honestly don’t know what they plan on doing with Twilight. All the other characters are so much more developed and invested then her, to the point S5 episodes had many comments on just how impossibly uninvested emotionally she is even after all this time.
 
Twilight would have to do something really bold to grow as a character, like rebel against Celestia for something she truly believes is wrong.

@CronoM
 
From what I see, you say that Twilight’s basically become a way more established character than the others. Not saying it’s a bad thing, just an observation.
 
Then again, while the show focuses on the Mane Six..the show is Twilight’s story. The show began with her learning about friendship and more to life than just being a study mare. Then again, that could be thrown out the window since the show has expanded from Twilight to the others. That’s just me though.
 
I’d love to see an episode with Celestia, she needs a lot expanding as a character since the show focuses on Luna (plus it’d probably get Josh Scorcher something to enjoy since he’s never a Luna fan anyway). As for bringing politics….OH BOY, That wouldn’t be a good idea.
 
With how divided the fanbase is with the show, bringing in politics, one of the biggest buttons on the internet would be asking for more splitting.

@CrassMetalHead  
Does importance = relevence and justified? If so, nothing has changed regarding importance, just window-dressing. Heck, after all the development the other 5 have gotten since Season, the only one I thought at the beginning of Season 5 who was less qualified to solve friendship problems then Twilight was Fluttershy, but in Fluttershy’s and Twilight’s episode, it was Fluttershy who stepped up while Twilight just used her magic.
 
If they are actually trying to convince us she’s not cut out for the job, the show and the EGs later movies have been doing a superb job doing it. It takes her 130 episodes to develop as much as any of the other characters develop in 13.
 
Heck, the end of EG3 symbolized that the two Twilight’s role was to Luna what Sunset’s role is to Celestia for the next generation.
 
“Yeah the whole “ Princess of Friendship “ is cheesy but considering how the show is, it sort of fits.”
 
Actually, its completely counter-intuitive to original theme. The whole idea of having a princess of friendship denotes one is more important then the rest. Any group can a guardian of a group(Rainbow Dash) or a champion of the group(Sunset), but Twilight’s story has been nothing but pushing the others to the side, showing how her bonds with them make her important.
 
Season 5 set things in motion so that ‘Twi is god next to the others’ might not be so true in later seasons thanks to episodes bringing her to reality like Amending Fences and What about Discord. Our biggest hope is that it keeps up the pace so that other characters like Celestia will be shown more flawed and thus given character development. It would likely eliminate the safety net plots as well if that ever happened, and nothing could be better then that at this point.
 
Hmm, I wonder what would happen if Starlight brought up politics in front of Celestia? Just in case they haven’t obliterated her entire personality like they did in the possibly retconned last few minutes(ex. Twilight flying in Season 3), her issues with the system are deep even if she’s given up on creating a cult town.

@CronoM
 
When I meant that is that a lot of people accused the writers of not putting Twilight’s status as Princess as importance, which was addressed in the season 4 finale.
 
Yeah the whole “ Princess of Friendship “ is cheesy but considering how the show is, it sort of fits.
 
And yeah Season 5 fixed up the issues of “Twi is God next to the others, it’s better than just ignoring it.

@Background Pony #D828  
?????????

@CrassMetalHead  
Thanks. :)
 
“I wouldn’t say the show became “5 ponies + One princess” as the show still enforces how important all six of them are (I mean season 5 confirmed their friendship basically BOUNDED EQUESTRIA).”
 
But that’s just it. The theme of show (in the 2 part episodes) has been recently that Twilight’s bonds with the other 5 make Twilight important, not the Mane 6 important. The recent finales and premiers couldn’t care less about the other 5, heck, Season 4’s horribly written finale had them captured instantly and they weren’t even allowed to talk in their Rainbow Power forms.
 
Although Season 5 had it a little better, showing some of them as badasses in alternate timelines, its still remotely balanced or justified like they managed in EG2 or EG3. Even Rainbow Dash being the direct cause of all 6’s destinies being joined by fate, by doing the impossible as stated in the episode, was glossed over as unimportant in the last few minutes of the finale.
 
It honestly feels like the show is contractually obligated so Twilight can’t share the limelight in big plot episodes. Hasbro wants to sell princess Twilight toys that much
 
“ Plus I do love how despite the high princess status, they established it with the Season 4 finale instead of ignoring the hell of it.”
 
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘despite’. ??? “Fate” suddenly gave Twilight a castle and Celestia gave Twilight a lead-on question on what her purpose should be, which was basically the same thing the entire Mane 6 have always been doing. Twilight didn’t learn a thing about what she wants, how being a princess will change her life, or anything like that.
 
I didn’t say they ignored her status of princess, I simply stated that they never let the full impact of it sink in and they never try to justify it. Heck in Rainbow Rocks, they wrote Spike to justifiably belittle the way she became a princess.
 
Maybe the thing that worries me the most about the finales and premiers is that the writers and the Hasbro mandates will create a conflicted mess like what usually happens.
 
And yeah, season 4 of Kim Possible was writing one can appreciate. It was awesome.

@CronoM
 
You know..that is a good point. While I don’t have a problem with Twilacorn..it was pretty much a move by Hasbro to make a toy. From what two friends told me, the Season 3 finale was intended to be the show finale. However Hasbro instead ordered a new season and as a result, the writers had to incorporate Twilacorn into Season 4.
 
I wouldn’t say the show became “5 ponies + One princess” as the show still enforces how important all six of them are (I mean season 5 confirmed their friendship basically BOUNDED EQUESTRIA). Plus I do love how despite the high princess status, they established it with the Season 4 finale instead of ignoring the hell of it.
 
|| Kim Possible had a pretty glorious moment of establishing Kim and Ron as a couple, and using the “So the Drama” movie to establish it from “just childhood friends” to an actual fleeting couple. And hell, they even played around with Ron going from “school mascot” to an actual football player, to even having him face his monkey fears.|| Now THAT is good writing.

@CrassMetalHead  
True, but Canterlot Wedding had the benefit of being well written. It was a 2-part story where there was no safety net and no forced scenarios being given by the people in charge to deal with a crisis in the most backwards way possible. Good storytelling tension comes from necessity and urgency, something EG2 and EG3 knew how to do even though the show’s finale’s and premiers after Canterlot Wedding didn’t.
 
The two worst things a show can do while jumping the shark is 1) ruin most of what was good about a show, or 2) make a significant change but do nothing with it or justify it. Twilicorn was obviously the latter. It didn’t do much of anything, and that’s the issue. She got all the ‘huzzah’s’ without the full weight of the change ever impacting her life.
 
Normally this isn’t too much of a problem, but it makes the writers think they have to make every serious story overshadow the other characters just for the sake of the character. Canterlot Wedding’s story was written for the sake of the plot and setting, as it should be, Twilight was only at the center of things cause her brother was involved. When that part of the story ended, the Mane 6 banded together as equals to fight off an invasion. Ever since Crystal Empire, premier’s and finale’s were written for the sake of a single character, thus other characters had to be written around. That is the worse way to write.
 
When you think about, Twilicorn was not the shark jump, the real shark jump was changing the focus from importance of 6 to the importance of 1 plus 5 that started in Crystal Empire. Twilicorn was simply an excuse for them to do it, which is why it did, as you said, nothing much to the show, either overly positive or negative, dancing around the big change with nothing to make us feel it was necessary.
 
Here’s an example of an actual POSITIVE shark jump.
 
In the movie transition between S3 and S4 of Kim Possible  
the main characters Kim and Ron become a couple. Kim Possible was already a really good show, but them being a couple and the dynamics between them evolve, it increases story telling immensily in S4. And it causes all the generic high school dating hijinks disappear cause they are an official couple. It also increases the depth of how they act around other characters that are already in adulthood and now being treated as adults, not ‘stock vague adults’ as Jontron would say.
 
I’m not saying a romance has to ensue, I’m just demonstrating that a well written shark jump can bolster the growth in a series and its characters, and in a setting as varied as Equestria, there are many ways of doing that.

@CronoM
 
Basically, which is why I found amusing (and annoying) that OP compared this episode to Fairly Odd Baby, one of the biggest contributing factors in the FOP’s Seasonal Rot (at least not a first). I just wanna see how this goes hand to hand, sometimes the things like this end up surprising us in the end, like how most people were surprise how the simple episode of Canterlot Wedding became a FULL SCALE INVASION OF CANTERLOT.
 
I suppose that makes sense. it’s just everyone on the internet always portraits “Jumping the Shark” as a horrible thing, like when people accused Twilacorn as this, despite the fact it did nothing to change the show aside from Twilight getting a higher status and being the same character.

@CrassMetalHead  
Not exactly. Basically what’s been shown has been discussed and by now, most of us have nothing left to talk about until it actually airs. We all still have very differing opinions towards the premier’s trailer, but since the two biggest positive or negative bombs were Starlight Glimmer’s plot and Fluffy Heart’s plot, and a big fat unknown on how they will deal with their characters, there’s not much to discuss. The major plot of the premier itself is still pretty vague.
 
Jumping the shark isn’t always a bad thing, in fact its almost necessary for a series that started out almost completely episodic to continue and grow. This season in fact might have a promising shark jump considering most recent marketing campaigns have been gearing towards even Hasbro advertising MLP as no longer a little girls show. The question is whether its well written.
 
People enjoy jumping the shark events all the time so long they are well written.

@CronoM
 
I think I just felt a burn.
 
Also, I guess everyone’s stopped bitching and whining over the upcoming episode, or is everyone still going to accuse a show about toys “jumping the shark” more than TMNT, Transformers, and every other Toy based show.

@Background Pony #AE74  
As opposed to if it came out during the run of Winx Club? Ever After High? Bratzillaz? Or even Sailor Moon?
 
Take your pick. The only reason they went for a Doug-esque color scheme is due to the fact all characters were ponies that were identified by multicolored skin in the first place. Was MLP:FiM ripping off Monster High back then? While some people were perturbed the humans having multi-colored skin, realistically it accentuates identifying them with the characters of three seasons past in their flash animation. And similar to Doug, the main character Sunset has the most natural color scheme.
 
Nothing in Monster High was something that had never been done before at least 5 times before in the U.S. alone, several of them very popular. Heck for a while, Rosario + Vampire was the internet advertised poster child of popular non-shounen manga, even in the U.S.
 
Was EG1 originally made mostly for profit? Of course it was, it was terribly written. But as Faust said G4 was sort of a reboot of G1, it was only natural that humans were going to be involved eventually, and it accentuated the already Narnain-esque nature of Equestria. The modern high school setting was simply the most convenient, and was even played straight in the later films.
 
They didn’t need to ride any one series’ coattails when MLP was already massively more well known then Monster High. Their ambition with 2 films after EG1 exceeded any ambition even remotely resembling that series. Monster High was barely a blip. If anything Equestia Girls 1 was aiming for the old High School Musical popularity. They practically advertised it as such.
 
Equestria Girls would of been made the same even if Monster High never existed.

@CronoM  
Strange that the shoehorned spin-off about multicolored humans in a school with magical gimmick (that seems oddly specific came to fruitition at a period where you could see a lot of little girls wearing Monster High backpack ,genius.

@Background Pony #D828  
Big things are ahoof here, I’m sure of it. I’ll be pretty surprised if Sunburst isn’t Sunset’s cousin or thereabouts…

@transblitz1  
I watch that episode recently and proof wasn’t the problem

@Background Pony #6D02
 
Starlight Saber, though

@Background Pony #A9D9  
It probably went like this:  
“You never wrote. You never visited. You left me and now you’re chasing some bitch!”  
“Starlight, I won’t let you insult Sunset Shimmer. She’s amazing!”  
“You think your waifu is perfect? You’re wrong! Your…your waifu is shit! SHIIIIIIT!”

@Background Pony #D828
 
Technically it’s Sunburst.

that yellow pony looks like sunset shimmer!

@transblitz1
 
Yeah but unlike MLP, it wasn’t cancelled and then resurrected later on.
 
People are just whining over A BABY.
 
What’s next, a whinefest over a mane change?!

@transblitz1  
It wasn’t “last time” lol

The last time a cartoon added a baby and a new main character we got Fairly Odd Baby, aka the start of seasonal rot

@Background Pony #A9D9
 
There’s hoping, but hey episode soon.